Descent into the Abyss
by angeliris3
Summary: Primarily based of FF 2: Crimson Butterfly although some references are made to the first FF. Rate for language and death. NO SLASH.


Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Tecmo is the all owning divine one.  
Also, this story is not meant to offend anyone who has or knows someone  
with mental illness. It's a story. I did my best. So don't sue me. I  
don't have anything anyway.  
Descent into the Hellish Abyss  
The Gasps of some poor spirit echoed through  
The Osaka House, intensifying the chill  
Upon the heart of Mio, who feared for her twin.  
Had Miyako the Wanderer succeeded?  
Was Mayu drained at her ghostly hands?  
The Door to the Coal Room slowly swung, allowing  
The sounds to crescendo. Mio stepped past  
The threshold. Simultaneously mist  
Surrounded her. Miyako's demise screamed  
Indignity. Miyako the Wanderer  
Lie prostrate, cornered by Masumi the Bound.  
No longer living, still walking, Masumi  
Advanced toward his love. Vestiges  
Of the dead surveyor's memory intact,  
He called, "Miyako, Stay away!" These useless words  
Miyako did not heed. From confusion or fatigue  
No movement was perceived. The Bound Man neared  
The woman. "The ritual ... The ritual."  
His rope afflicted hands descended, crushed  
Her fragile trachea. Miyako was gone.  
Mist thereby thinned, Mio snapped to consciousness.  
The Wanderer and Bound Man sped toward  
The girl. The camera glowed. It shined in the dark  
As the circle and filament of crimson flashed.  
She took the picture, capturing stillness of his form,  
Absorbing his spirit energy to slay  
The demon. Exorcise his soul more  
Precisely. Where is the Wanderer? Oh. Behind.  
Oh shit. The Wanderer stole my energy.  
Okay. I use the herbal medicine.  
This All God's Village sure enjoys its herbs.  
But leavings vials around everywhere?  
Those people ... Damn! The ghosty strikes again.  
Attempt to concentrate. Snap the camera.  
Ha! Damage taken thrice. Surveyor fades.  
The Wanderer is nowhere. Wait! The wall of the Tatami Room  
Dims. In. Out. A white form floats.  
Experience a windless draft. Miyako's soul  
Appears. In previous encounters, she  
Advances, all aggressive as a prowling cat.  
She now withdraws. Adorning tears dim not  
Her beautifully preternatural  
Yet strangely vacant features. Her mournful cries  
Of "Why?" are broken only by wrenching sobs.  
I must destroy her. Fate has willed it so.  
With camera to my eyes, I aim and shoot.  
A piercing wail that punctuates the air remains.  
The scream quietly fades and the wanderer  
Is nevermore to haunt the Osaka house.  
Have I passed out? My throat is sore and my face caked with dried tears.  
I seem to have lied here for days, crying and screaming. I try to sit up  
but cannot move. My wrists, ankles, knees, and chest are all bound. Sharp  
spikes run into my veins. The ghosts must have captured me. I cannot by a  
Kusabi! I am no foreigner! Do not cut me! I do not wish to die,  
crucified on the ceiling, my blood pouring on the floor, blood to appease  
the .  
A man in a white lab coat enters. "How are you feeling today?"  
I lie still. "I need my camera!"  
He smiled gently. You don't have a camera, remember? You have a doll in  
your room. It that what you mean?"  
A doll? The decrepit Kiryu House is filled  
With hanging dolls. The Maker of Dolls was here.  
An inner room contains the dolls of the Kiryu twins.  
Ascending stairways wound towards the porch.  
Each footstep caused Mio's heart to jump in time.  
Inside the house, she found a tortuous maze.  
The corridors led everywhere and yet  
Went nowhere. Mio found a fragmented diary.  
Violet was the cover. Pages showed childish scratches.  
What the hell! What is this? Pages of madness?  
The first page, by Akane Kiryu, ran thus:  
-- Why kill? Why kill? Why kill?  
Why kill? Why kill? Why kill?  
Why kill? Why kill? Why kill?  
Why kill? Why kill? Why kill?  
Why kill? Why kill? Why kill?  
Why kill? Why kill? Why kill?  
Why kill? Why kill? Why kill?  
Why kill? Why kill? Why kill?  
Why kill? Why kill? Why kill? –  
The second, strangely enough, proved more disturbed.  
--My hands closed 'round Azami's neck.  
'Twas soft and warm. Alive. My grip,  
It seemed to cause her so much pain.  
The Veiled Priest, he came to help  
At the very end. But Azami said  
She wanted only me. I became one  
With Azami ... Now she's gone. It's done.  
But Father brought Azami back.  
And she forgave me. No more.  
The killing is over now. No more.  
I'll never hurt again. I'll never  
Let anyone kill again. He says  
Azami is possessed, trying to kill him.  
He's trying to kill Azami. I won't,  
Can't let that happen anymore. –  
As Mio finished reading, faint outlines blinked  
And shimmered on either side. Identical twins  
In purple kimonos rushed, beginning to reach  
To Mio's neck with clumsy childish hands.  
Doctor Aso's camera, it hungered  
For souls of the twins. One shot prevented one  
From harming Mio but did not absorb  
Her energy. The Doll has none to take.  
Of course. She tried again, this time with success.  
The twin began to shake. I cannot die.  
-- I aM PArt of akANe nOW.  
I AM onE wItH AKanE..  
K I L L. I T.  
KiLL tHAT sTupID dOll!  
YoU Don'T neeD a suBStitutE foR Me.--  
"Now, you must understand. We're one, not two.  
See, we are Twin Shrine Maidens. The God's  
Have fed on bonds fulfilled in the Crimson Sacrifice.  
Now we remain as one in body, soul,  
Forever! We live with one thought and goal.  
As one, we live, we die. No killing allowed.  
Prevent the killing, prevent the suffering.  
Save your twin!" The doll advanced.  
"Remember your doll?" the man asked. You named it Mayu and called it  
your twin."  
My lips curled back, showing my teeth. Liar. He wants to confuse  
me. Mayu is my twin. The ghosts have. Some of the newspaper clippings  
mention a veiled ceremony master. His face is covered. Him! He stole my  
sister away.  
"Where have you taken her! Untie me! I have to find my sister!"  
Approaching the Tachibana House, she glimpsed  
Poor Mayu crossing the connecting corridor.  
A figure led her past the doorframe locked.  
She disappeared and Mayu followed her.  
The Tachibana House unknown to Mio,  
She entered nonetheless. Her view was poor,  
Obstructed by fallen screens and broken doors.  
She heard a girl sniff. Someone was inside.  
The Kiryu House had diary scraps. The House  
Of the Tachibana's was no different.  
Again as Mio searched she found some scraps  
In childish script. Tremors shook the lines.  
The girl was scared. The background showed a peony.  
Her eyes were dim and saw but poorly.  
A cabinet crept open. A girl emerged.  
She wore a red kimono, decorated  
With leaves of gold. The girl was small and frail.  
"It's so dark!" She wailed, sobbing into her sleeves.  
A shriek in the air and like her I couldn't see.  
The haze cast a curtain over my eyes  
Was drawn back, framing an interesting scene.  
The girl, Chitose Tachibana, looked  
Up, staring at a tearful white-haired boy  
With her child, soft, charcoal eyes, cloudy and dull.  
A ring around his neck resembled a bright  
Circlet of a crimson butterfly. And grief  
Had turned his ebony scalp a dusty white.  
It shimmered alabaster as he passed below the moon.  
Itsuki Tachibana comforted  
His little sister. Then he spoke to me,  
"Escape through the Kureha Shrine passageway.  
The Family Pinwheels open the Old Tree's seal.  
You know this Yae. Go save your sister. Flee!  
The Ritual is nearing. Run away  
To the forest. Don't look back. I could  
Not make Mutsuki into a butterfly.  
I won't allow the same to happen now.  
But I cannot leave while Mutsuki stays.  
Good luck. May you and Sae be free together."  
Becoming silent, he had nothing more  
To say though I asked him many things.  
And so I left the girl and white-haired boy.  
Continuing towards the "Bridge of Heav'n"  
I met a guard. She blocked the Connecting Bridge  
To the Kiryu House. She moaned and murmured,  
"—It's ... dark ... the darkness is ... coming...  
If I am swallowed by the darkness ...  
If I must suffer that ... I ...  
It hurts ... It hurts ... It hurts ...--  
"You who let the darkness come. The Malice ..."  
She hissing, coming into light, she turned.  
A scream escaped from Mio's throat. The head,  
It hung down, wobbling on a broken neck, between  
The Broken Neck's emaciated shoulder blades.  
"The Kusabi ... he is coming ... the Kusabi ...  
Help me ... the ritual failed ...  
So this is the Repentance ..."  
"It hurts," she wailed, "I want to fly away."  
She deviated from attack and plunged off the bridge.  
"No!" Mio plunges after her, hoping some how to stop Broken Neck's fall.  
Of course it's too late. She fell to her death a century before. Mio  
tries anyway. She hopes to at least alleviate the poor woman's suffering.  
She felt herself flying toward the earth. She felt like a feather. A  
feather is calm and peaceful. It follows the wind. Winds blow into houses  
and barns. That's where feathers come from. Therefore, the feathers  
create the breeze so that they can fly away and see the world. The world  
is one giant bird covered in feathers, you see.  
Just as Mio started to plunge, the evil man who wanted her sister dead came  
up behind her. He stopped her mid transformation into a bird of a feather.  
He opened his mouth to lecture her ...  
"Originally, the Ritual sacrifices  
Came out of the Veiled Priest Dynasties.  
The conducting task of the Inner Sacrifice ...  
The Kurosawa led, Osaka kept  
The scrolls, the Tachibana housed the twins  
And the purified them. Each  
Had a role. The greatest role, however, is the twins.  
The first in memory were Twin Shrine Maidens  
Hana and Haya Chihara.  
Mamiko and Michiko Taketo followed  
Then Kohana and Nakoho Hayama.  
Rai and Mai Ikeda were true to their duty.  
Kioshi and Takashi Kata were Altar Sacrifices.  
Risako and Sanako Shimada followed.  
Then came the time of the Veiled Priest Dynasty.  
Usagi and Yasu Osaka preceded  
Young Akane and Azami Kiryu.  
The failed Altar Twins Itsuki and Mutsuki Tachibana  
Caused Yae and Sae Kurosawa  
to never complete the Ritual.  
All God's Village has but a few visitors,  
But they included Hotaka Morita and Taru Yeda  
Hikaru Yuki and Kazuci Arai  
and Daichi Ono and Osamu Fujitani.  
The last Kusabi, Seijiro Makabe the folklorist, failed.  
--The village is doomed ... enveloped in dark eternal.  
The bright of morning will never come again.  
We can never depart. The ritual has failed ...  
It must be. You can complete it. Kill your sister twin.  
For the village! ... Kill her ... Kill her ... Kill her ... Kill ...--"  
Me? Mayu ... Mayu! Screaming her name, I ran.  
The Ceremony Master chanted after.  
I was running, following my sister's voice  
Through walls and doors to nowhere. "Mayu! Where ... ?"  
"Mio .. please, save yourself ... Run ...  
No matter what happens."  
"Yae, why don't you come back for me?  
I miss you, please ... Yae ... Yae...  
We promised ... Its dark here ...  
I don't want to be alone ...Please ...  
Kill me ... I've been waiting for your hands  
descending upon my neck since I was born.  
Kill me ... Kill me ... Kill me ... Kill me ...  
Kill me ... Kill me ... Kill me ... Kill me ...  
Kill me ... Kill me ... Kill me ... Kill me ...  
  
. 


End file.
